Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A Snobby Joe Kind of Day

When I left the house to go to work this morning, I was pretty happy that the roads didn't look too terrible, considering we got freezing rain from yesterday afternoon until early this morning. My driveway, on the other hand, was a different story. It was a total ice rink! Fortunately, after a few tries, I was able to get the car out into the street, and I managed to do it without killing (or maiming) a pedestrian or causing an accident. After the big storms that we've had two weeks in a row, with no melting time in between, the shoveled snow is piled up on either side of the driveway over 5 feet high. Then I hear that we are supposed to get another foot of snow on Friday. UGH. I am not a winter person even when it's just cold and the ground is clear, but these types of winters, where you're taking your life into your hands every time you go to work, really do bad things to me. I get the blahs something awful.

In addition, I'm team captain of a healthy eating/weight loss challenge at work, so I've been getting into a new routine with eating and exercising. I guess since I'm the vegan, I'm a natural choice to lead the team toward healthier eating (and believe me, I'm pushing plant-based meals; I like to convert through delicious food since I don't want to bring politics to work--just wouldn't be a great idea at my job), but over the winter so far, I've been more of a baked goods and convenient, quick meals vegan than an oil-free whole foods vegan. I know most people choose to make their dietary changes on New Year's Day, but since my birthday is on January 3, I like to postpone any food-related resolutions until later in the month. So this challenge is well-timed for me in that respect, but in another way, it's not perfect, because with this kind of weather, all I want to do is eat cookies and curl up in bed, not work out and cook healthy meals. So tonight, I tried to compromise.

I was definitely in a sandwich mood, and I was thinking about some type of burger-style food, but none of the recipes I was finding were appealing to me, so I decided to go with the Snobby Joes from Veganomicon, aka the vegan bible. It seemed like a good choice, because it's comforting and super-delicious, and even better news for you, the recipe is online here: http://www.theppk.com/2009/11/snobby-joes/. So you can try it yourself! I made a couple of changes, using brown lentils instead of green, and eliminating the oil to lower the calories & fat (by sauteeing the onion & pepper in water). Otherwise, there's not much reason to change something that is working so well.

Those are some sexy sweet potatoes in the front, dry roasted with salt, pepper & garlic powder

Although this wasn't a dinner I could curl up in bed with (lentils in the bed doesn't sound like a good time, but I guess I have some friends who would disagree--you know who you are!), it certainly hit the spot. It felt like a guilty pleasure, but there was nothing to be guilty about!

To those of you who are in the central Massachusetts area, stay warm and be safe on the road. The life you save may be mine! To those of you elsewhere, please be appreciative that you are elsewhere. As for me, I'm going to keep exercising and trying to eat good mood food, because even I am getting tired of my miserable attitude! ;-)

I'm in NH and very irritated with the cold and snow at the moment. I had a big photoshoot set for Sunday and we had to reschedule because it's going to be below freaken 0 that day... too cold for a baby to be outside. Sucks. blech

I'm one of those freaks who loves winter and snow, but you've been experiencing a humdinger that would challenge even my affection for the season! Besides, it's only fun if you don't have to go out in it except if you wish to go out and PLAY in it. I'm sure that it's been very tough on folks like you who were no fans of Old Man Winter to begin with. Here's hoping it eases up soon, and you get to enjoy an early and especially lovely, blooming spring.

We're in the middle of a blizzard ourselves right now, but I'm totally enjoying it since it's a Saturday, there's a fire going in the fireplace, I'm surrounded by snoozing dogs and am well stocked with books, DVDs and my internet connection, and BW is upstairs ratting around in the kitchen making whole wheat bread.

And the reason he's making whole wheat bread is so we'll have it to serve beneath these Snobby Joes!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this recipe and the link to it! The minute we saw it we scrapped our meal plans and decided to make this. It looks and sounds delicious! And perfect for a day like this. Bravo!

I think your meal of Snobby Joes and sexy dry-roasted sweet 'taters looks perfect too - easy, comforting and healthy! Best of luck with the healthy eating/weight loss challenge at work! I admire your determination to shake off your winter blahs and stay motivated, and hope your team wins! :-)

Well, Laloo, I guess it's good that someone is happy about snow :) I guess the one you have is supposed to be headed our way and is going to become a real humdinger by the time it gets here. And all I can say is ick. Today was really cold, and tomorrow's supposed to be worse -- and Melody, I'm sure it's even worse for you since you're a little more north than me. I'm sorry about your photoshoot, that really does suck that it got cancelled.

Thanks for the good wishes about the challenge too. I have been exercising every day and really trying to limit the amount of added fat, either by adapting recipes or searching through Fat Free Vegan or Happy Herbivore for recipes. I will be posting one of those probably tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled!

Hey, Georgia! We made these last night and they were a really big hit! And BW's homemade Snobby Joe buns were terrific with them (though they were huge! LOL But we were hungry, so THAT was okay!) I took some photos but haven't downloaded them yet, so I don't know if they're going to be worth sharing, but this recipe sure was! We really love it. Thank you again!